Henry tried to enlighten us to the miracle of the Fibonacci series of numbers, otherwise known as the Golden Ratio, an increasing series of numbers that characterizes many natural growth processes. Maybe we didn't all quite grasp the whole thing, but here are some of the things he talked about:
o, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, etc.
The numbers increase exponentially, and any two consecutive numbers add up to the third. This can be expressed as an equation:
a + b a
____ = ______
a b
Meaning that the ratio of a + b is to a as a is to b. The solution is an irrational number:
1.6180339887....(an irrational number never repeats and never ends, meaning it cannot be expressed in a fraction). Confused? Me too.
Maybe the wikipedia entry will help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio
Why wouldn't growth occur in a doubling process, rather than by this ratio? Apparently death has something to do with it, or "Cell Apoptosis," the natural dying off, resorption, cells falling off...that is part of life.
The Golden Ratio is often expressed with the Greek letter phi -- a circle with a slash through it
which caused Wendy paroxysms of divine excitement, because "phi" is also the root of "philosophy", or love ("phil") of knowledge.
"Close the line"
What Wendy's mentor Alan Chadwick would say when there would be no more cutting of flowers in order to allow them to concentrate fully on making seed. We were warned to watch now for the ripening of seed, which occurs between the fall equinox and Samhain (Halloween, end of October). We were also reminded of California's "double dormancy" periods, in winter and in summer.
Homework Assignment:
We each chose a plant family we were interested in. Each team/plant family will give presentations over the next two weeks, "small crop reports" based on a fact sheet we will fill out. (They handed out folders with the assignment.) If you missed this class, you can pick your team on October 20 and plug into the process. Each group will have 15 minutes. Here are the plant families, once again:
Amaryllidaceae (onions, garlic, etc.)
Brassicaceae (broccoli, cauliflower, etc.)
Chenopodiaceae (chard, quinoa, spinach, etc.)
Compositae (sunflower and many others)
Cucurbiticeae (squash, melon, cucumbers)
Leguminosae (beans, peas)
Solanaceae (tomato, eggplant, potato)
Umbelliferae (carrots, coriander, parsley, etc.)
Graminae (grains)
Wendy and Henry presented on Graminae as an example. It contains the most food plants on earth, and the main three humans use: corn, rice, and wheat. Corn is 9,000 years old (beans the same, squash is older). Cultural requirements for corn: 65 - 80 degrees F to germinate. Plant thickly, direct sow in May- June. Plant in curved lines and blocks to aid pollination. They are high nitrogen feeders, so rotate crops to revitalize soil. Thin to 12" spacing.
Corn is monoecious -- has male flowers and female flowers on the same plant. To maintain genetic variety, corn needs to be planted in blocks measuring 9' x 9' minimum, isolated 2 miles apart. Since this is rarely feasible in small scale farming, care must be taken to isolate the pollen that you don't want to fertilize your corn by timing the ripening of that corn (4 - 5 weeks away from the female flowers ripening) or by bagging the pollen heads [male] and/or the ears [female]. A good way to stagger the timing is to plant the second variety (that you don't want pollinating your ears) after the first variety is pollinated and the tassels start to dry.
Every single kernel has a strand of silk that is the tube the pollen travels down to fertilize the seed. When you see ears that have missing or shrunken seeds, it means they didn't get pollinated. For genetic vitality, it is important to bring in new seed varieties from time to time.
Propagating Woody Perennials
Wendy used Mimulus auranticus, our native sticky monkeyflower, to demonstrate how to propagate a woody plant. She took "strikes" from large, woody stems -- little soft stems with leaves -- by pulling the twig off the main stem, then stripping its lower leaves to reveal the "bud spots", where roots will grow. She then stuck them at a 45 degree angle into perlite. Roots will grow down from the stem. Why not place the strike straight up and down? It has to with the energy flow in the plant: if it fell on the ground it would lie sideways. It takes less energy to the roots to "fall" into the earth from a lateral stem that to work their way down from a vertical stem (as I intuitively understand it...)
Cuttings work too.
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